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Samuel M. Allem
December, 2018
What is Ultrasound
■ Ultra – beyond , above
■ Audible sound frequency 20hz to 20Khz (for young
individuals)
■ has been used to image the human body for over half a
century
■ involves transmitting small pulses of ultrasound echo
from a transducer into the body
■ ultrasound waves penetrate body tissues of different
acoustic impedances along the path of transmission,
some are reflected back to the transducer (echo signals)
■ The echo signals returned from many sequential coplanar
pulses are processed and combined to generate an image
Crucial part of Ultrasound,
the Probe
■ contain multiple piezoelectric crystals which are
interconnected electronically and vibrate in response to an
applied electric current
■ These vibrating mechanical sound waves create
alternating areas of compression and rarefaction when
propagating through body tissues
■ Medical ultrasound devices use sound waves in the range
of 1–20 MHz
Generating Ultrasound
■ Ultrasound waves are generated in pulses (intermittent
trains of pressure) that commonly consist of two or three
sound cycles of the same frequency
Generating Ultrasound …
■ Pulse repetition frequency (PRF) is the number of pulses
emitted by the transducer per unit of time